Off to a good start

Despite one of my dogs (he shall go unnamed) deciding to wake me up at 4 AM to go out, the morning has started off well. I was super happy to find a great deal on running shoes. My PT pointed out to me that I really needed a new pair yesterday. I already knew this but had been dragging my feet (pun intended) about it.

While I was going my online shopping, I hear lots of clang and bang. I knew one of my dogs (yes, the one who woke me up at 4 AM) was performing his daily job of retrieving the doggie bowls. Well, he brought one to the sliding glass door and just dropped it there. However, a few minutes later, he comes to come with two bowls! I was quite ecstatic over this, especially since I'd only worked with him the other day on getting two bowls at the same time. He got lots of praise and treats for that one. It's quite astonishing sometimes to think just what goes through our four-legged minds. I posted recently about cognitive abilities in dogs, so this is just another one to be impressed at in my book. Now, I'm just waiting for all three bowls! I'm sure he will get it though, he's a smart cookie.

Dogs and Cognition

Moving to a different topic. Dogs and cognition. Intelligence has always been a difficult area of research when it comes to animals. Besides animals like a chimp and a parrot who have speaking capabilities, others in the animal realm have to find other ways to show their cognitive abilities. Researchers at the University of Vienna have been looking at the cognitive abilities in dogs. Their most recent study looked at how well dogs could categorize pictures and transfer them to new situations. The dogs were shown photographs of landscapes and dogs on a computer screen. When they nose-touched the dog, they received a reward. They did this with new photos as well. The dogs aced the tests. The researchers also placed photos of dogs within the landscape and again the dogs accurately chose the dog. The conclusion to the study is that the dogs formed a concept of "dog."

I think this is really cool. I've always thought dogs recognize dogs and their own breed. This is just more validation in that. Some may remember that this group of researchers the University of Vienna also had a study on dogs and imitation back in the summer. It's another fascinating study.

It's pretty amazing what these four-legged creatures can do. Everyday, we learn something new.